Buro Happold graduate engineer wins student construction award
Buro Happold graduate engineer Benjamin Torrance has just won the TRADA Construction Student prize for his master’s degree dissertation project, which he completed at Cambridge University. He joined Buro Happold last year, after graduating in mechanical engineering, and now supports the practice’s Edinburgh structures team.
His award-winning entry was a design for a timber-framed multi-storey car park, which investigated the commercial and structural viability of timber in construction. The use of long span timber-concrete composite floors enabled column-free parking space to be achieved in a structure type usually dominated by steel and reinforced concrete, and enabled a significant reduction in the structure’s embodied energy. The use of Eurocode 5 for the design is an encouragement to engineers to embrace unusual timber designs with the new codes.
“We are very proud of Benji’s achievement and are actively looking for projects were we can utilise the research from his excellent study,” said Ian Hargreaves, associate director for Buro Happold in Edinburgh.
Benji will be presented with his award at the Interbuild Exhibition in at the Birmingham NEC at the end of October this year, and he has also won prize money of £1,000.
“I’m delighted to have won this prize, and excited to be providing alternatives to our dependence on steel and concrete,” he said. “Timber has been used to build fantastic structures for thousands of years, and I hope we shall continue to see new ways of incorporating it into structural and architectural design.”
TRADA (the Timber Research and Development Association) is the UK’s leading timber specialist, and in running the competition, the judges looked for projects that demonstrated innovative and inspiring applications of timber within a structure.
Ends
Note to Editors:
Buro Happold
Press office and practice information at www.burohappold.com
Images are available on request.
For more information, please contact:
Jenni O’Connor
PR Officer
Tel +44 (0)1225 320600 ext. 2937
Fax +44 (0)8707 874148
Email jenni.o’connor@burohappold.com
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976. We now employ over 1,700 staff in 21 offices worldwide, and our aim is to produce high quality engineering design in concept, in detail and in execution, on time, to programme and delivering excellent value for money. Our distinctive culture and ethos is still based on the same principles of care, value and elegance that were established when the practice was founded.
We offer structural, building services, civil, infrastructure and façade engineering, as well as a broad range of specialist consultancy services including sustainability, ground and environmental engineering, fire and security design, health and safety management, inclusive and urban design, project management, and specialist CAD and computer simulation provision.